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TIL about “Second Screen Viewing” and that Netflix pushes writers to make scripts and dialogues simpler to keep viewers who are on their phones engaged (www.pcmag.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/til@lemmy.world
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No nuance and characters are saying the obvious stuff, because viewers are looking at another device while watching. We’re so cooked.

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[–] 23 points 10 months ago (3 children)

My mom stopped watching "the bold and the beautiful" for this exact reason. She was watching it from almost 40 years straight 😂

When I went to their house for lunch I could hear her shouting "what? Need to explain again the conversation from the beginning?? It literally happened just 5 minutes ago!! Noooooo! Can we just go forward with the plot instead of explaining what happened one minute ago??"

I watch one episode a month but indeed it's annoyingly repetitive. Not even "second screen" but something like "muted TV in a dentist waiting room with subtitles in another language"

This is how my mom explained me why it is annoying:

Before: ** plot twist happens ** => viewer is shocked

Now:

  1. for 15-20 episodes before the "plot twist" is supposed to happen, characters insert "if [plot twist] happens it will be very bad for us" in their speeches.

  2. The bad guy is shown preparing the "plot twist" for another 15-20 episodes

  3. For another 15-20 episodes the characters still mention randomly in their conversations how bad if the plot twist would happen in their lives and let everyone swear that no, they can never let the plot twist happen.

  4. Obvious "Plot twist" happens in slow motion over the course of 5 episodes

  5. Characters talk about how the "plot twist" impacted their lives for 15-20 episodes

  6. After 30-60 episodes, when characters are gathered at a family reunion on the coach, start reminiscing how the "plot twist" was so shocking and unexpected

  7. For the next 15 episodes every single person present at that family reunion including some random security guard really needs to retell the "plot twist" from their point of view

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    That is horrible

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    I asked my mom to tell me some plot, and I was like "wtf is that"

    After 30 years of not giving a single damn about her biological son (Finn), Sheila, a convicted serial killer who escaped prison, suddenly becomes obsessed with seeing him every day.

    After being told that she won't be able to join the family of his son as a loving mother because everyone sees her as a dangerous murderer, she proves that's not true by shooting both Finn and his wife, Steffy. Finn is pronounced dead and immediately cremated without an autopsy.

    Steffy survives, so Sheila disguises herself as a nurse to finish the job in the hospital. She fails for 20 episodes, gets caught, and runs away.

    Surprise! Turns out Finn isn't dead. A "miracle doctor" saved him and forged a death certificate/cremation papers just because.

    Sheila gets a genius idea to fake her death and escape prison: chops off her own toe, calls 911 screaming "A BEAR IS ATTACKING ME!", and disappears. The police find the toe and some bloody clothes. Their professional conclusion? "The bear ate every single part of her except for this one toe with a suspiciously clean surgical cut. Case closed."

    They take over 100 episodes to realize that maybe a bear couldn't have done a clean cut with the teeth.

    The "criminal mastermind" still needs to stalk the son and decides to go to her victim’s favorite restaurant with an obvious disguise (classic wig+brown coat). Nobody recognizes her with the "80s classic spy Halloween costume" in a luxury restaurant but she accidentally wore open-toed sandals. Steffy notices the missing toe, calls the cops, and Sheila is arrested.

    Everyone spends 100 episodes celebrating that she’s gone forever. Then, a judge vacates the sentence over a clerical error. Multiple murders, prison escape, attempted double homicide? Doesn't matter. She's free to go.

    Steffy lives in a villa on a cliff where people have a habit of dying by "accidentally" falling down the cliff during fights. Sheila stalks her for hundreds of episodes until they fight and Sheila falls off the cliff. Again: no autopsy, immediate cremation.

    Just as everyone is celebrating, someone remembers the body they just cremated had ten toes. But oops, too late, she’s already ash.

    Imagine all of this stretched out over hundreds of episodes with 80% filler and characters repeating the same three sentences every day.

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